Spotify's Daniel Ek leads €600M investment in AI military defence company

Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek has partially funded a new €600 million investment into AI military defence company Helsing.

Based in Germany, Helsing develops AI tools for military use, and Ek's investment firm, Prima Materia, has acted as lead investor in the latest round of funding for its activities. The deal marks one of Europe's largest defence-technology investments to date.

Ek, whose previous involvement in a €100 million investment round into Helsing in 2021 proved highly controversial, told the Financial Times that he's now "doubling down" on his financial support for the company.

"The world is being tested in more ways than ever before," he said. "That has sped up the timeline. There's an enormous realisation that it's really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield. We can't understate the implications of that for this conflict [in Ukraine] or really any conflict going forward."

Ek founded Prima Materia in 2021 and said at the time that its aim was to fund "deep tech" projects. Helsing was also founded in 2021 and has created software systems for military use, including those that can analyse battlefield scenarios in real-time. It has contracts with a number of European governments, including France and Germany.

Addressing the latest round of investment, Helsing said the finances would be used to speed up product development and expand its presence across Europe.

Ek's previous investments in Helsing drew heavy criticism from both musicians and users of Spotify alike. He also drew the ire of musicians last year when he said "the cost of creating content" is "close to zero" with many artists suggesting he was out of touch with the challenges of making a living from making music.